Field of Disclosure
The disclosure generally relates to the field of receiving online content, in particular to receiving online content through web feeds.
Description of the Related Art
A web feed is a data format used for providing periodically updated content to users who have subscribed to the feed. Typically, a content distributor publishes a web feed and provides through the web feed updated data for the subscribers to the feed. Examples of web feeds include feeds that provide news headlines on a news website, weather forecasts, stock tickers, the status information of online friends, and updates made to a user's online friends' web pages.
To receive a feed, a user typically first registers the feed with an aggregator running on the user's machine. Once a feed is registered with an aggregator, the aggregator periodically checks for any updated data available on the feed and retrieves the updated or new feed data.
Because feeds automate the process of searching for new content, feeds are a convenient mechanism to get information updates on a subject without having to search the subject every time. However, the paradigm of user specifying web feeds for subscription is itself a hurdle for subscribing to the desired feeds. One drawback is that the user may not be familiar with feed aggregators or subscribing to feeds. Another is that users often do not know what feeds are available or are unaware of feeds that may be particularly interesting or useful to them. The requirement that users must search and then register for the feeds discourages many users from subscribing to those feeds.